Roseanne: Finally back where she belongs, on a weekly sitcom?

‘The thing women have yet to understand is nobody gives you power. You just take it,” said Roseanne Barr as she climbed the heights in Hollywood, taking power, and not apologizing.

People are talking about Rosanne’s return to network TV in a series for NBC. This is good news for those of us who still like to watch real television.

“Rosanne,” the groundbreaking sitcom than ran for nine seasons, was not only one of the best and funniest, it was a fascinating journey into Rosanne’s own mind, as she morphed, emotionally and physically. She brought her volatile personal issues to the set and into the scripts. It was like watching somebody go a little mad, season by season. Roseanne — with the help of her brilliant co-stars John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf and Rosanne’s TV “children” — developed into a fabulous comedian. She wasn’t in the beginning. In the first couple of seasons, when Rosanne and her family were at their most blue-collar and normal, Rosanne often seemed to be laughing at her own jokes. Later, she was more in control of her talent, but the series spun slowly off into outer space, and into the tortured — often hilarious — inner workings of Ms. Barr’s mind.

Most die-hard “Rosanne” fans refuse to acknowledge the show’s last season, after the Connor family wins the lottery. And they hate the final episode. I won’t repeat it here. A younger generation is watching “Rosanne” again, and let them decide and be pleased, or horrified.

But the show had so many remarkable elements, even as the star took more and more control and completely altered some of the situations and characters. And, of course, Roseanne herself was a mass of contradictions, anger, accusations and surprising vulnerability.

I interviewed her once, not long after the series ended. She looked lovely (all that extreme plastic surgery had relaxed) and was surprisingly serious, meditative, but edgy, too, on guard — though our column had been extremely supportive of her over the years. She seemed to be struggling still with who she was, publicly and privately. It was one of the most fascinating sit-downs I ever had, and I’m sorry I haven’t seen her recently. (Although, after reading her in Rolling Stone recently, maybe not right now!)